"At Ramilies what ensigns did you get?
"Did many towns in Flanders then fubmit?
"Was it the conq'ror's bus'nefs to destroy,
"Or was he met by all of them with joy?
"Oh! could my wifh but fame eternal give
"The laurel on those brows fhould ever live!"
The British worth in nothing need defpair
When it has fuch affiftance from the fair.
As virtue merits it expects regard,
And Valour flies where Beauty is the reward.
IN Loveaffairs the theatre has part,
That wife and most inftructing scene of art,
Where vice is punish'd with a just reward,
And virtue meets with fuitable regard;
Where mutual love and friendship find return,
But treach'rous infolence is hiss'd with scorn,
And Love's unlawful wiles in torment burn.
This without blushes whilst a virgin fees
Upon fome brave spectator Love may seize,
Who till the fends it never can have ease.
As things that were the best at first
By their corruption grow the worst,
The modern ftage takes liberties
Unseen by our forefathers' eyes.
As bees from hive, from molehill ants,
So fwarm the females and gallants,
All crowding to the comedy
For to be feen and not to fee...
But tho' these females are to blame,
Yet ftill they have some native shame:
They all are filent till they 're afk'd,
And ev❜n their impudence is mask'd;
For Nature would be modest still,
And there is reluctancy in will. ›
Sporting and plays had harmless been,
And might by any one be seen,
Till Romulus began to spoil them,
Who kept a palace call'd Afylum,
Where bastards, pimps, and thieves, and panders,
Were lifted all to be commanders;
But then the rafcals were so poor
They could not change a rogue for whore,
And neighb'ring jades refolv'd to tarry
Rather than with fuch scrubs they'd marry,
But for to cheat them and he wiv'd
They knavishly a farce contriv'd.
No gilded pillars there were feen,
Nor was the cloth they trod on green;
No ghosts came from the cellar crying,
Nor angels from the garret flying:
The house was made of sticks and bushes,
And all the floor was ftrew'd with rufhes;
Invite the Sabines to his fhow.
Unto this opera no rate is;
They all were free to come in gratis; ↑
And they, as girls will feldom mifs
A merry meeting, came to this.
There was much wishing, fighing, thinking,
Not without whispering and winking.
Their pipes had then no shaking touch ;
Their fong and dance were like the Dutch.
The whole performance was by men,
Because they had no eunuchs then.
But whilft the mufick briskly play'd
Romulus at his cue difplay'd
The fign for each man to his maid.
"Huzza!" they cry; then feize: fome tremble
In real fact, tho' most diffemble:
Some are attempting an escape,
And others foftly cry, “A rape!";
Whilft fome bawl out, "That they had rather "Than twenty pound lofe an old father:" Some look extremely pale, and others red:
Some with they'd ne'er been born, or now were
And others fairly with themselves arbed: [dead;
Some rant, fear, run; whilft fome fit still,
To fhew they 're ravish'd much against their will.
Thus Rome began; and now at last,
Their rapes and lewdness without shame,
Their vice and villany, is the fame.
Ill be their fate who would corrupt the stage,
And spoil the true corrector of the age!
Now learn thofe arts which teach you to obtain
Those beauties which you fee divinely reign.
Tho' they by Nature are transcendent bright,
And would be feen ev'n thro' the gloom of night,
Yet they their greatest luftre still display
In the meridian pitch of calmeft day;
"Tis then we purple view and coftly gem,
And with more admiration gaze on them.
Faults feek the dark: they who by moonlight woo
May find their fair one as inconftant too.
When modesty supported is by truth
There is a boldnefs that becomes your youth.
In gentle founds disclose a lover's care;
'Tis better than your fighing and despair.
Birds may
The hare grown bold may face the dogs again, 286
abhor their groves, the flocks the plain,
When Beauty do n't in Virtue's arms rejoice,
Since harmony in Love is Nature's voice.
But harden'd impudence fometimes will try
At things which justice cannot but deny;
Then what that fays is infolence and pride
Is prudence with firm honour for its guide.
The lady's counfels often are betray'd
By trufting fecrets to a fervile maid,
The whole intrigues of whose infidious brain
Are base, and only terminate in gain.
Let them take care of too diffufive mirth;
Sufpicious thence, and thence attempts, take birth.
Had Ilium been with gravity employ'd,
By Sinon's craft it had not been destroy'd.
A vulgar air, mean songs, and free discourse,
With fly infinuations, may prove worse
To tender females than the Trojan horse.
Take care how you from virtue ftray,
For fcandal follows the fame way,
And more than truth it will devife.
Old poets did delight in lies,
Which modern ones now call furprise.
Some fay that Myrrha lov'd her father,
That Byblis lik'd her brother rather ;'
And in fuch tales old Greece did glory,
Amongst the which pray take this story.
Crete was an isle whofe fruitful nations
Swarm'd with an hundred corporations,
|